Roberto Mancini: I'll reserve my best for Man City title tilt

Head coach Roberto Mancini smiles during a Manchester City press conference

When you play in the Champions League on a Tuesday or Wednesday you can use the same team on a Saturday or Sunday in the Premier League

Roberto Mancini

Mancini is worried about the ­impact that playing in the competition will have on his side’s defence of their Premier League title.

While the club’s Abu Dhabi owners are anxious for the club to stay in Europe, not only for prestige and financial reasons but also to improve City’s UEFA coefficient for next season’s Champions League, Mancini admits he faces a delicate balancing act.

The lack of recovery time between Europa League and Premier League fixtures means Mancini will be forced to select different Thursday and Sunday teams as he bids to overhaul neighbours Manchester United.

The Italian said: “If we go in the Europa League, we will play different teams.

“When you play in the Champions League on a Tuesday or Wednesday you can use the same team on a Saturday or Sunday in the Premier League.

“But with the Europa League this is ­impossible. If you don’t get any help from the FA, then this is the problem with the ­Europa League.

“We want to play in it, we want to try and win it, but if we do stay in it, we will play two different teams, one Thursday and one Sunday.”

There’s a good chance that Mancini won’t have the problem anyway.

To finish third in Group D, City need to turn round their poor European form and defeat ­Borussia Dortmund – then hope Ajax don’t beat Real Madrid in the Bernabeu.

City’s hopes have been hit by the absence of their two best midfielders.

David Silva did not travel yesterday after suffering a hamstring injury and Yaya Toure is suspended after picking up three cautions in the earlier group games.

Mancini confirmed that Silva is ­already a doubt for the Manchester derby on Sunday.

He said: “He is tired and he has a problem with his back and his hamstring. We will try and let him ­recover for Sunday, but it will be difficult to get him back for the derby.

“He’s played all the games since recovering from an ankle injury earlier in the season.”

Mancini’s options to make changes ahead of the top-of-the-table clash with United are limited because six other players are ­unavailable.

Aleksander Kolarov, James Milner, Jack Rodwell, Gael Clichy and Micah Richards are all injured, while Kolo Toure was not registered for City’s Champions League squad because they were hoping to sell him before the August transfer deadline.

Mancini’s hopes that Dortmund – already through to the knockout stages as group winners – would field a weakened side have been dashed by his opposite number Jurgen Klopp, who says he will field a strong team because he wants the German champions to finish on a high.

That is bad news for City, who were totally outplayed by Dortmund at the Etihad in ­September when only Joe Hart’s heroics and Mario Balotelli’s last-minute penalty ­salvaged a lucky 1-1 draw.

Mancini believes Dortmund are potential Champions League winners, but points to their dramatic improvement in Europe over the last year.

“They are really strong, one of the best teams in Europe now,” he added.

“And I think they can have a chance of winning the Champions League.

“Last season they finished with only four points and went out at the group stage, so it shows the improvement a club can make in a year.

“We didn’t do enough to stay in the competition. We are disappointed, yes, but we can do nothing at this moment.

“We made mistakes in a lot of our games. It’s impossible to win all the time, but we need to understand why we went out, why we made those mistakes, and try to improve next year.”